Emma Raducanu raced into the last 16 of the Madrid Masters with a devastating win over fellow teenager Marta Kostyuk on Saturday evening. And her route deep into the tournament has been eased by the defeat of No.7 seed and local favourite Garbine Muguruza.
The former Wimbledon champion yesterday lost to Anhelina Kalinina and the US Open winner will now face the world No.37 from Ukraine on Tuesday.
Fellow Ukrainian Kostyuk has spoken about her problems focusing on her tennis with war raging in her homeland.
And despite the attempts of the Spanish crowd, she never looked likely to repeat her 57-minute over Raducanu at the Transylvania Open last October when the British No.1 was struggling with illness. Raducanu gained revenge by winning 6-2 6-1 in the Arantxa Sanchez Stadium – the No.1 Court – at the Caja Magica.
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And the British No.1 took her third match point – following a Kostyuk double fault – when the Ukrainian sent a wild forehand long.
It was a superb performance from the Bromley teenager who only played her first professional match on clay last month. She has now won five matches at the Billie Jean King Cup, in Stuttgart and now two matches here.
Raducanu, 19, recalled after her first round win over Tereza Martincova that she was taking her final maths A level paper exactly a year ago – and now the world No.11 is set to break into the world’s top 10.
Working with Iain Bates and Louis Cayer from the LTA here, she is adding variety such as drop shots to her hardcourt game which took her to the title in New York.
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